Mohammed Abdur Razzack

Education and Early Years

Mohammed Abdur Razzack (May 6th, 1928 - November 2007) was born in Hyderabad Deccan. His early childhood days were spent in Hyderabad, Vijaywada, and Aligarh. He attended Aligarh Muslim University as well as Osmania University for his undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1951 with a Masters in Civil Engineering.

Professional career

He started his career in the United States with the Bridge Department of the State of Illinois (predecessor to Illinois Department of Transportation) in 1951 and subsequently with Sverdrup & Parcel in St. Louis, International Engineering Company (IECO) in San Francisco, and Associated Consulting Engineers (ACE) Pakistan Ltd. He has worked on massive civil engineering infrastructure and irrigation projects in the United States and Worldwide. During his career he was regarded as one of the foremost engineers of his time in Pakistan and other developing countries.

Some of the projects he has been involved with can be found here [http://www.acepakistan.com/proj/irrigation.htm] .

He joined Associated Consulting Engineers ACE(pvt)Ltd. in 1958 upon returning to West Pakistan at the request of Mr. Khwaja Azeemuddin [http://www.acepakistan.com/about.htm] , who founded Associated Consulting Engineers (ACE) pvt Ltd. that year. He was appointed Technical Director of ACE and positioned in Teheran, Iran to setup a new branch office. He became Managing Director of Associated Consulting Engineers Pakistan [http://www.acepakistan.com] ACE(pvt)ltd. in 1975. During his tenure, and building upon the great accomplishments of his predecessor Mr. Kwaja Azeemuddin, ACE was ranked as #75 in the Top 200 International Design Firms by the McGraw-Hill construction industry weekly publication ENR in 1977 [http://enr.construction.com/people/topLists/topIntlDesign/topIntlDesign_1-50.asp] . As managing director of ACE(pvt)Ltd., he procured new engineering and consulting services projects from the World Bank and developing countries for massive irrigation projects, dams, and civil infrastructure projects in developing nations such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Iran, Sudan, and Libya. This was a major achievement for a company based out of a developing country.

He retired in 1981 after two terms as Managing Director of ACE Ltd. and subsequently served as Managing Director of Sazin Ltd. in Saudi Arabia. He later joined the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Aviation and Defense for Hospital Construction in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He was identified as essential personnel and remained on duty during the first Gulf war in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He was awarded a medal for his services at the King Abdul Aziz Hospital during the first Gulf war in 1992.

In 2006 he was elected as Chairman of the Board, Associated Consulting Engineers ACE(pvt)ltd.

He passed away in November 2007 in Houston, Texas.

*List of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign people